SEO is an important part of any website strategy, but with a Google Penguin update on the horizon, a lot of businesses are wondering whether their visibility is going to be affected. While you as a site owner can't predict upcoming Google changes, you can make sure your site doesn't get hit with Google penalties that could lower your search rankings.
Keeping your site from getting hit with a penalty might sound difficult, but the truth is that Google is mostly targeting sites filled with spam, or sites that are using black hat SEO techniques to boost their rankings. In general, if you keep everything above board, you've taken the first step to avoiding a Google penalty.
However, there are some additional things you can do to keep your rankings from plummeting overnight - things you might not even realize could result in you getting hit with a penalty.
Don't Use Paid Links
The Google spiders that crawl through websites and pick up on data don't like paid links. That's because they are essentially recognized as spam and only serve to attract more readers - readers that won't get any useful information. You can continue using ad and directory links if they are working for you, but ditch all of the paid links right away.
Keep Your Content Unique
Websites are supposed to have unique content, and you really shouldn't be publishing your content in multiple places if you can avoid doing so. It's also quite obvious that you shouldn't be copying and pasting large blocks of text from content that isn't your own.
If you can't keep up with creating enough unique content on your own, hire somebody to help you out. Utilize the services of content creation sites. Whatever you do, avoid duplicating content over and over again. This will result in a Google penalty sooner or later.
Audit Your Links
As a site owner, you should be auditing your website and links about once per month. Start by running your backlinks and finding out how many of your links are from high-quality sites (versus low-quality sites) that might be considered spam-generators on their own.
In general, you don't want to be associated with those low-quality sites. They'll be hit with Google penalties of their own eventually, therefore, you don't want anything to do with them.
When you do find low-quality links, ask for them to be removed right away. Document your efforts and request repeatedly if you have to. Taking note of your efforts to get low-quality links removed is important because you may need this information if you do get hit with a Google penalty and need to file a reconsideration request to undo the penalty.
Watch Your Anchor Density
Anchor density and how it relates to your money terms is an important issue to pay attention to. Sites with high anchor density for their money terms can indicate SERP manipulation, which can lead to Google penalties.
The Google penalties for manipulating the search engine page results through SEO black hat tricks and over-optimization can result in having your website removed from search engine indexes. That means people won't see you in search engine results pages, which will surely impact your traffic and bottom line.
Ideally, you want your anchor density to be under 15-percent for your money terms. Your non-money anchor text terms can be a little higher, but keeping your money terms low is essential. If your anchor density is getting too high, use branded term links to dilute the percentage and keep a Google penalty from coming your way.
Google penalties can result in your site being buried way down in the search results, which is going to negatively affect how much traffic your site gets. Overnight, your site could go from a first-page result to a page-12 result - if it shows up at all. To keep that from happening, use the tips above to prevent a Google penalty.
About The Author: Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer and online marketing professional in Southern California. She works with HostPapa to teach businesses both small and large how to effectively use web analytics, social media marketing and SEO for their sites. She has also used her background in search engine marketing to optimize the performance of her own business' site.
Did you find this article helpful? Has your site been hit with a google penalty? If so, what steps did you take to recover from it? Please let Marcela and myself know by leaving us your valued comments in the comments section below.
Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).
For a full list of helpful articles on SEO, use the following links:
http://www.derekjones.co/search/label/SEO
http://www.derekjones.co/search/label/SEO%20Tips
If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.
As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on NetworkedBlogs, via Email (maximum of one email per day), on Facebook and Google+ or by subscribing to our blog feed at:
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You can also follow me on Twitter @djones1509, Google+ and on Facebook at:
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Until my next post tomorrow with 6 ways to be remarkable online, enjoy the rest of your day! See you back here tomorrow!
© 2013. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.
Keeping your site from getting hit with a penalty might sound difficult, but the truth is that Google is mostly targeting sites filled with spam, or sites that are using black hat SEO techniques to boost their rankings. In general, if you keep everything above board, you've taken the first step to avoiding a Google penalty.
However, there are some additional things you can do to keep your rankings from plummeting overnight - things you might not even realize could result in you getting hit with a penalty.
Don't Use Paid Links
The Google spiders that crawl through websites and pick up on data don't like paid links. That's because they are essentially recognized as spam and only serve to attract more readers - readers that won't get any useful information. You can continue using ad and directory links if they are working for you, but ditch all of the paid links right away.
Keep Your Content Unique
Websites are supposed to have unique content, and you really shouldn't be publishing your content in multiple places if you can avoid doing so. It's also quite obvious that you shouldn't be copying and pasting large blocks of text from content that isn't your own.
If you can't keep up with creating enough unique content on your own, hire somebody to help you out. Utilize the services of content creation sites. Whatever you do, avoid duplicating content over and over again. This will result in a Google penalty sooner or later.
Audit Your Links
As a site owner, you should be auditing your website and links about once per month. Start by running your backlinks and finding out how many of your links are from high-quality sites (versus low-quality sites) that might be considered spam-generators on their own.
In general, you don't want to be associated with those low-quality sites. They'll be hit with Google penalties of their own eventually, therefore, you don't want anything to do with them.
When you do find low-quality links, ask for them to be removed right away. Document your efforts and request repeatedly if you have to. Taking note of your efforts to get low-quality links removed is important because you may need this information if you do get hit with a Google penalty and need to file a reconsideration request to undo the penalty.
Watch Your Anchor Density
Anchor density and how it relates to your money terms is an important issue to pay attention to. Sites with high anchor density for their money terms can indicate SERP manipulation, which can lead to Google penalties.
The Google penalties for manipulating the search engine page results through SEO black hat tricks and over-optimization can result in having your website removed from search engine indexes. That means people won't see you in search engine results pages, which will surely impact your traffic and bottom line.
Ideally, you want your anchor density to be under 15-percent for your money terms. Your non-money anchor text terms can be a little higher, but keeping your money terms low is essential. If your anchor density is getting too high, use branded term links to dilute the percentage and keep a Google penalty from coming your way.
Google penalties can result in your site being buried way down in the search results, which is going to negatively affect how much traffic your site gets. Overnight, your site could go from a first-page result to a page-12 result - if it shows up at all. To keep that from happening, use the tips above to prevent a Google penalty.
About The Author: Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer and online marketing professional in Southern California. She works with HostPapa to teach businesses both small and large how to effectively use web analytics, social media marketing and SEO for their sites. She has also used her background in search engine marketing to optimize the performance of her own business' site.
Did you find this article helpful? Has your site been hit with a google penalty? If so, what steps did you take to recover from it? Please let Marcela and myself know by leaving us your valued comments in the comments section below.
Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).
For a full list of helpful articles on SEO, use the following links:
http://www.derekjones.co/search/label/SEO
http://www.derekjones.co/search/label/SEO%20Tips
If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.
As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on NetworkedBlogs, via Email (maximum of one email per day), on Facebook and Google+ or by subscribing to our blog feed at:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/DereksHomeAndBusinessBlog
You can also follow me on Twitter @djones1509, Google+ and on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/djones1509
https://plus.google.com/104849975941505117776
Until my next post tomorrow with 6 ways to be remarkable online, enjoy the rest of your day! See you back here tomorrow!
© 2013. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.
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